Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination – TED Talk

In 2005, Italian engineer Massimo Banzi and his team created the Arduino microcontroller

Computer-based interactivity used to be beyond the reach of most artists, designers, and other electronics amateurs who wanted to make their work respond to light, sound and other stimulus by moving, beeping, tweeting. Then, in 2005, Italian engineer Massimo Banzi and his team created the Arduino microcontroller, a small, cheap programmable computer, bringing interactive technology to the masses. With a variety of sensors, the Arduino is versatile and easy to use.

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to make something great.”

Since its inception, the device has popped up in projects as varied as an exhibit on brains at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, to a programmable LED umbrella, a DIY kit that sends a Tweet when your houseplant needs water or a persistance of vision vest for your dog! As massimo says, ”You don’t need anyone’s permission to make something great!”